Split brain activity allows you to listen and drive, simultaneously:
New research on consciousness from the University of Wisconsin-Madison used brain imaging to explain why people are capable of driving while listening to the radio, reaching their destinations with no recollection of the drive. Lead researcher Dr. Giulio Tononi, director for the Wisconsin Center for Sleep and Consciousness, helped show that the two circuits in the brain operate independently of one another. Essentially, the brain is able to split tasks in half in order to complete two at once.
Five UW faculty members elected AAAS Fellows:
Five UW-Madison faculty members were elected Fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. Professors David Brow, Hannah Carey, Ann Palmenberg, Snežana Stanimirovi? and John Valley were elected by their peers to the society in recognition for their contributions to their respective fields.
New model to predict weather:
Tim Wagner, a scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is leading a project that may change the way meteorologists predict the weather. The Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer, or AERI, measures temperature, water vapor and trace gases in Earth’s troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Wagner believes this new model could improve the accuracy of weather predictions.
